Castle of Glass
by Noctisis Rrhagia
Summary: A conversation between Cloud and Reno is overheard by two people in the Lifestream and give them an idea. Summary sucks, Tags- Time travel, Warnings- Slash and het, messing with cannon etc. Nothing will be graphic, rated M for safety.
1. Chapter 1

_**"Castle Of Glass"**_

_**By Linkin Park**_

_Take me down to the river bend  
Take me down to the fighting end  
Wash the poison from off my skin  
Show me how to be whole again_

_Fly me up on a silver wing_  
_Past the black where the sirens sing_  
_Warm me up in a nova's glow_  
_And drop me down to the dream below_

_'Cause I'm only a crack in this castle of glass_  
_Hardly anything left for you to see_  
_For you to see_

_Bring me home in a blinding dream,_  
_Through the secrets that I have seen_  
_Wash the sorrow from off my skin_  
_And show me how to be whole again_

* * *

Reno and Cloud sat at the bar drinking like old friends. After Meteor and the Remnants they often met for drinks and talked about the past and what they were working on at the moment. Cloud couldn't help but wonder if it started as a way to get him closer to Shinra. In the end it didn't really matter, Reno and he had become almost as close as brothers.

On this night they were both pretending to be a bit drunk, the mako that was in their blood keeping them from ever being truly intoxicating. The bar around them was not as loud or as busy as it could be at this time of night but that was more from the savior of the world being back in temporary residence then the bar not being popular.

Reno was brooding once again, his mind back on the time when the Turks were forced to drop the Plate. Tseng had been held as collateral as well as Rufus so they had to do as they were told. As the red head stared into the bright green liquid in front of him his friend was also deep in thought.

"Have you ever thought about what you would do if you could go back and change things?" Cloud asked with his eyes on a picture that hung on the wall behind the bar. It was a picture taken a few weeks after the geostigma incident; in it were all the surviving members of the hunt for Sephiroth and the last of the Turks as well as Rufus Shinra. Cloud couldn't remember exactly who had talked them all into taking the picture, or even who took the picture. He often found himself staring at it and wishing the people that they had lost were also in it.

Reno turned and looked at the blond, his mind going over the question. "There is a lot I would change, but not a lot I could really do on my own, yo. It would take too long for me to climb the ranks to be able to really change anything, a few things but without someone changing things in the SOILDER database it wouldn't be much of a change, yo."

Cloud sighed as before downing the last of his drink, an electric blue that actually reminded him of Zack's eye color. "Same here, I managed to find the codes for the SOILDER database but wouldn't have a chance in hell breaking into the Turks systems. I could remove certain things, like the Shinra mansion, from the equation but anything else…" He trailed off before picking up his thought process. "The information about where Jenova is and Hojo's plans would be in a different system and I'm not computer savvy enough to get to the information I would need."

"Why are you two even thinking about this? It's not like you'd actually be able to do it." Tifa broke in before placing new drinks in front of the duo. "So why bother even thinking too deeply about it."

Reno and Cloud turned to one another and each raised an eyebrow as they turned back to her.

"Okay, that's just kind of creepy." Tifa couldn't believe the change that had come over the two since becoming friends. Cloud had taught Reno about wielding a sword, though the red head preferred blades like a rapier, and Reno taught Cloud some of the small things Turks learned. Such as how to hold a whole conversation with eye movements and subtle twitches.

She walked away as they turned to one another and began their conversation anew.

"I think that if Genesis never deserted, than most of it never would have happened yo." Reno stated while looking up at the ceiling.

"Degradation correct? I remember bits and pieces and we've talked about it before. That does seem to be the starting point. From Zack's memories I know that Sephiroth wasn't always that cold. That it only happened after his friends were gone, leaving him to handle Hojo and SOLIDER on his own." Cloud responded as his eyes found their way back to the picture behind the bar. "So many people could have been saved from happening if those two idiots hadn't have messed with Gaia's work."

"True, yo." Reno responded. "Actually I imagine that someone outside of the company could have saved us all if they simply passed the right information to the right people before the shit hit the fan."

Cloud hummed for a moment. "From what I have heard Genesis would have acted just as he did even if given the information earlier. Sephiroth, well, with him it would have depended on when he got the information. The Turks would have already known. Rufus wouldn't have wanted to do anything at that point. So the only other person would have been Angeal."

They continued talking till long into the night, eventually moving the conversation into Cloud's room above the bar. That night there may have been two people conversing but two more were listening in with grins that would have had the non-SOLDIER and Turk backing away with worry, had they physical forms to be seen.

* * *

**Okay, first yes I know what in Gaia's name am I doing starting yet another story. Sorry I kinda fell into the FF7 hole and have no wish to crawl back out. I will be working on all my stories but this one just wouldn't leave me be. **

**Second, this will not be a TT story where Cloud goes back and joins SOILDER. You'll see what I mean soon. And yes Reno goes back too. Anything else you'll have to wait and see.**

**Third, this can be considered AU (in my opinion all fanfics are AU). I have read more fics then I have played the game so this may as well be fanon not canon.**

**Pairings will most likely consist of slash and het. There will be no mature content on ff and if I write it I will post it on aff separately. Concrete pairings will be Zack/Aerith, Vincent/Lucrecia. I am not really sure who I am going to pair Cloud with. It will either be Seph, Gen or Reno. Maybe Tseng. What do you all think?**

**Updates will be sporadic as my life is complex.**

**Any questions or comments, feel free to pm me! Read and review my lovelies! **


	2. Chapter 2

Cloud awoke quickly, he could sense something was off and he certainly didn't seem to be where he had been when he fell asleep after seeing Reno to the door of Seventh Heaven. He kept his eyes closed and his body relaxed as he used his hearing and sense of smell to take in his surroundings. The air was crisp with the scent of a fire burning. He was warm but the air held a chill that e remembered from his childhood. But how did someone move him from Edge to Nibelheim without him waking? Drugs didn't stay in his system any more thanks to Hojo; he was all but immune to make poisoning anymore, thanks to the lifestream. He could be knocked out by a hard enough blow to the head but he wouldn't have stayed under long enough to make it back to his hometown.

He refrained from tensing as he sensed another person walking closer to him. He took in their scent as they laid their hand on his forehead as if taking his temperature. For a moment he was still with shock. That scent of grease and oil and, oddly enough, sugar was one he only ever smelled around his mother. Cloud couldn't help but wonder if he had slipped into another delusion.

"Oh Cloudy, I wish you'd wake up my little chickabo." His mother's soft tone rang in his head and he couldn't stop the tears from forming in his eyes and falling down his cheeks. "Cloud?"

He opened his eyes, afraid that he was trapped in another delusion but not caring if he got to see his mother one more time. "Mama." He voice came out sounding thin and wispy, as if he had just spent the last few weeks sick. With a start he also realized that he sounded as he did before hitting puberty. "What happened?" he asked this more to himself then this vision of his mother but she answered him anyways.

"Oh sweety, I'm not really sure. A couple of weeks ago you came home covered in Mako. I've thanked Minerva every day that you managed to make it home. One of those freak storms blew through town not an hour later. If the Mako poisoning wouldn't have killed you the snowstorm would have. You've been in and out since and the healer in town didn't think you'd survive anyways. He said it would've been a mercy to simply put you down as if you were some dog! I sure showed him and the mayor what for when they suggested it again last week. Well ha! You sure showed them didn't you."

Cloud couldn't help but smile as his mother rambled. Oh Gaia, how he had missed her. He always blamed himself for her death, feeling that if he was stronger, or better, that she and all the people of his hometown wouldn't have died to be replaced by brain washed Shinra flunkies.

"I'm okay now mama. What day is it?"

"Well you missed bringing in the New Year by two days. Happy εуλ 1999."

OoOoO

It took a while but after recovering from his 'mako poisoning' Cloud eventually came to the conclusion that he was indeed in the past, and in his 13 year old body. Needless to say the savior of the world was not a very happy chocobo. On the other hand he had noticed that he seemed to be going through a quickened maturity process and he could only hope that it was thanks to the planet. After all, there wasn't much he could do to keep certain events from happening in the adolescent body he awoke with. Actually he was surprised he had been able to do anything in his 16 year old body!

OoOoO

A few months had passed since he awoke in this new time and he had already formulated a plan. He couldn't go back to Midgar and try for SOLIDER. If he was anywhere close to Hojo then he was sure that the mad scientist would end up dead regardless of the consequences.

Since he had awoken Cloud had made routine trips into the mountains surrounding his home town for training. He had noticed that he was improving quicker than he expected and soon he would be able to put some of his plans in motion. First he had to find out who else was brought back. He already knew Tifa hadn't been. And he wasn't counting on Vincent having been brought back but that wouldn't keep him from waking the man up before he did something about all of the files in the Shinra mansion. After that was done he planned on making sure as few as possible of his friends were brought into the whole take-Shinra-down-before-they-make-Sephiroth-insane-and-help-lead-us-to-the-end-of -the-Planets-lifespan. He knew he needed to take out Hojo and see if Jenova was already at the reactor. If she was he would take care of her right after he awoke Vincent. Hopefully he'd have the ex-Turks help. Then he'd make his way to Midgar and find a way to get rid of Doctor Creepy without having to join Shinra, or least without joining SOILDER. He knew that he may have to join Shinra as a low level worker in order to get close enough to implement a few of his plans. Many of his strategies were centered on causing the least amount of fall out. He would need to make it look natural.

He also had plans to keep Sephiroth, Angeal and Genesis from going mad. If he was able to give them the information they needed before their situation was past the point of no return then maybe the two wouldn't desert Sephiroth.

When he first set up his plans he realized that he had spent more time around his pseudo-brother Reno then he had thought, considering all of the plans he had laid sounded awful Turk-like. Cloud couldn't help but slap his face with his palm as he thought of how Reno would react to his plans/thoughts. The blonde would never live it down and Reno would crow about how he successfully turned a SOILDER (even if he never was one) into a Turk.

oOoOo

As Cloud once more headed back to his mother's house he couldn't help but marvel at the Planet's apparent plan. He may not have awoken with his full strength in this time but the more he worked the more of his strength came back. He estimated that he was back to about seventy five percent. When you consider what his seventy five percent was compared to others, which put him at about a third class SOILDER's level. Cloud guessed that with another two months or so he'd be back to his normal level.

He had been in the past now for four months and he was almost to where he felt he needed to be in order to start his plans. He wanted to be at a high enough level that if he was met with extra resistance at any point he had enough strength to at least attempt to blast his way out of any situation.

As he got closer to home he noticed a few extra tracks in the snow, that still stubborn fell in the mountains, but didn't think any more of it considering most of the townspeople came and bought his mother's baked goods from time to time. They always had to point out how much of a service they were doing for the Strife's as they did this, which often caused Cloud to give them his best glare which now sent them running.

As he walked into the house the first thing he did was lean his standard broadsword (oh how he missed his fusion blade) next to the door and hung his coat on the rack. "Mom! I'm home." He knew she had probably heard him come in but it was still polite.

"Come to the kitchen Cloud! We have guests. They say they're friends of yours?" Emma Strife hollered out to her son.

Cloud couldn't help but wonder who they were as he had no friends in town. Then his eyes widened, could it be?

He rounded the doorway to the kitchen and saw three pairs of eyes looking at him, one blue and the other two were different shades of green.

"Yo."

* * *

**And there is Chapter Two. So as you can tell this won't be a Cloud/Reno fic but Reno sure as hell isn't going to let just anyone court his brother either. I will not be posting the pairing until later but yes, it is another male (I did warn you it was going to be slash).**

**Also, I am looking for a beta, hopefully for all my stories. I want one who is willing to bug me until I get stories done and chapters sent. If you are interested drop me a pm.**

**I know my chapters are short but if I tried to push past my usual range of 1-2k words then I probably wouldn't post anything. I would loss interest if I didn't have people telling me what they think.**

**Please read and review.**


	3. Chapter 3

The first thing Reno noticed when he woke up was the cold dank smell that seemed to permeate the air around him. He used all of his senses, besides his eyesight, to catalog everything that was around him before he made any movements. What his senses told him was that he was in an alley with no one around after he opened his eyes and looked around he slowly stood up and pulled out his PHS.

The first thing he checked was the date and to his surprise, the date was several years in the past. At first, he wondered if Cloud was pulling a prank on him. It wouldn't have been the first time the blonde had done so. Sometimes, Zack's influence was just a little too much for him to hold back.

It didn't take long for Reno to realize that he was truly in the past. He had awoken in Sector Seven. The shock that ran through him was also filled with hope and questions. After checking a few things to make sure it wasn't a hallucination he smiled widely and he trust his hands into his pockets and began walking towards the Shinra building.

'This could be fun' His thoughts enlarged his grin, causing those around him to give him an even larger berth then the sight of his suit normally would.

oOoOo

When he walked into his apartment the first thing he did was scan over the chaos that was his place of residence. What looked like a complete mess was more of a first line of defense. Reno had and deictic memory so he knew if even one piece was misplaced. Most intruders wouldn't think about fixing any of his 'mess' if they moved it while looking for something.

Seeing that nothing was out of place except for a note, that was most likely left by Rude, the red-head calmly walked to his bathroom. He hummed as he looked up into the mirror before he gasped at the sight of his eyes. He had SOILDER eyes! The glow was almost as bright as Cloud's. Reno took a deep breath before running all possible scenarios through his mind.

His mind finally settled on the most likely conclusion, something must have happened while he was sent back in time. He must have somehow been dragged through the lifestream to make it here to this time. He knew that he'd have to watch how he acted from now on and to be sure he kept his eyes hidden. Luckily he could simply wear his goggles and pass his 'sensitivity to light' as a reaction to a bad hang-over. It wouldn't last as an excuse for long but all it really meant was that he was going to have to change his plans and watch his actions. He wouldn't have been surprised if he started getting the strength to go with the eyes. He'd need to find a training area soon, but one that wasn't on Shinra grounds.

oOoOo

"Reno. Take this file down to the Science Department." Tseng said as soon as he opened the door.

Reno wanted to stop and stare at his younger boss but he knew better then to give up the game this early on.

"You got it Bossman." Reno said with a grin and head tilt. "Anyone specific that this needs to go to, yo?"

"Professor Hojo."

Reno couldn't help the almost imperceptible flinch at the hated name.

"Is something wrong Reno?" Tseng asked with a narrowed glare. Reno knew that thoughts of what the mad scientist could have done to one of his Turks were running through Tseng's mind.

"Nah, just had too much to drink last night, yo." Reno said as he tapped his goggles. "Everything is a bit more sensitive than normal."

Reno shrugged when Tseng replied with nothing more than a hum.

As the door closed behind him Reno missed the calculating look in Tseng's eyes.

oOoOo

The now seventeen year old Turk walked through the halls holding the file in one hand and tapping his EMR on his shoulder with the other hand. He was trying to calm his thoughts of murder towards the creepy little toad in a white lab coat but it was tough going. Over the years after Meteor he had found and read as many files on, and written by, the demented scientist. Needless to say, he wanted to take Professor Creepy and spend a week, no a month, in a cold dark cell with all of his favorite torture tools. Then he would give everyone a copy of information telling them what the wanna-be God did to them personally and give each one of them a week with the creep.

While his thoughts were as dark as dark can get his face remained set in its usual grin. He exchanged greetings with those he passed in the hallways and acted like his usual cheerful self. The only time he almost faltered was when a fifteen year old Zack Fair ran past him in the hallway yelling about how he was late for training and Angeal was going to kill him. It was a bit surreal to once again walk these hall be none of this showed on the red-heads face.

It didn't take long for Reno to make it to his destination. He quickly walked towards where one aid said that Hojo would be, wanting to get this over as quickly as possible lest he lose his composure and simply kill the creature in human flesh.

oOoOo

Later that night Reno lay in his bed staring at the celling as he finalized his plans. He had already snuck into the mainframe of the company and using some of the codes Cloud had mentioned he managed to find out that Jenova was indeed still in Nibelheim, printed off some information that was stored in separate folders and saved on multiple discs just waiting for him to leave the information around for the right person to find. He had to move soon but it had to be at the right time. He needed to get at least one more person out of Midgar with him. Then his plan was to make it up to the Nibel Mountains to see if his favorite blond made it back in time as well. If not then he'd see about waking the ex-Turk and go from there. Now he simply had to wait. Tomorrow he'd know when to move for sure. He'd have to hit fast and hit hard but that wouldn't be any problem for him.

He had everything ready. He just needed to know when to move.

oOoOo

Less than a week later he had already he had planted the evidence (and a nifty little bomb where Doctor Creepy would find it) and was finally ready.

He was on what was his favorite assignment and instead of staying in the background he simply walked up to the brunette after Cissinei was relieved.

Green eyes locked with green.

"Hey Aerith, how about we go take a vacation, yo?"

oOoOo

"It took a while to get here but Aerith has gotten a lot stronger." Reno said to Cloud who was now sitting across from him and the last Centra.

"So you left the files for the Firsts to find, blew up Hojo's office with him inside and traveled here?" Cloud asked as his mom sat next to him and passed him a cup of hot chocolate.

"Yep. I realized on the way here that I was getting stronger and now have the strength of a third class, yo. First time I threw my EMR at a monster and it went straight through its head was a shock yo."

"His face was hilarious!" Aerith added as she giggled behind her hands.

"So now we kill Jenova and wake the vampire before torching Shinra mansion." Reno chose to ignore Aerith as he continued.

"Wouldn't it be better to leave Shinra mansion standing? We can use the terminals there to connect with the main ones in Midgar can't we? Change a few things more to our liking?" Was Cloud's response.

"My little chocobo is thinking like a Turk! I'm so proud yo!" Reno wiped fake tears from his eyes. Cloud grabbed one of the marshmallows from his cup and threw it at the red-head.

**And there is chapter Three. Four is already started but I am going to try to work on one of my other fics first, especially since I noticed that one of them hasn't been updated in a year. As you can see I'll be clearing up the whole Jenova/Hojo issue very quickly. Please remember that this takes before the events of Crisis Core. I should also mention that DoC will not be mentioned in this fic simply because I have never played it. What little knowledge I have is from what bits have been mentioned in other fics. I have included a timeline for the ff7 verse and would like to give a shout out to **_**1wildrose1 **_**who was actually the one to put the timeline together. Be sure to tell me what you think!**

**εуλ 1950 – Vincent is born **

**εуλ 1959 – Nanaki is born **

**εуλ 1968 – Cid is born **

**εуλ 1872 – Reeve is born **

**εуλ 1977 – Sephiroth, Genesis and Angeal are born.**

**εуλ 1978 – Rude is born **

**εуλ 1982 – Reno and Rufus are born **

**εуλ 1984 – Zack is born **

**εуλ 1985 – Aerith is born.**

**εуλ 1986 – Cloud is born **

**εуλ 1987 – Tifa is born **

**εуλ 1991 – Yuffie is born **

**εуλ 1997 – Zack joins Shinra (he is 13 at the time.)**

**εуλ 1999 – Denzel is born **

**εуλ 2000 – Cloud joins Shinra (he is 14 at the time.)**

**εуλ 0002 (October) – Sephiroth destroys Nibelheim and Cloud kills him.**

**εуλ 0003 – Marlene is born **

**εуλ 0006 (December) – Zack and Cloud escape the Shinra Mansion.**

**εуλ 0007 (Late September) Zack is killed.**

**εуλ 0007 (October) – Tifa finds Cloud wandering around Midgar and takes him in.**

**εуλ 0007 (December) – Events of Final Fantasy VII take place.**

**εуλ 0009 – Events of Advent Children take place.**

**Also, as you can see I finally decided to post who the main pairing is going to be up there in the little summary box. Before anyone says anything about it just remember that my Gen will be just a little less dramatic just as my Cloud is a little less emo. Not because I don't like the characters the way they are but more because I can't seem to write them that way. Thanks to ****Nala RAK King for betaing this chapter for me.**


End file.
